WK's Top something or other... let's just say "games" and call it good list.

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If this was a list simply about the most important games in my life, this would probably top five material right here. While Battletech was my first real role-playing game and I had played a few Zelda titles here and there, this is what I actually think of when I talk about my first RPG. I had two friends in middle school who loved the genre and wanted me to play it and I always declined on the grounds that I loved action games more. So when one of them convinced me to try out an Action-RPG, I said "why the hell not?" and borrowed it. If I told myself then how much this game was going to open up both my passion for a new genre of games, but also something that would have more personal impacts on my life, I would probably laugh it off.I ended up buying the game from my friend, and I still have his older brother's save file on it where he renamed the main cast with "dick" in all of them. Childish, but hilarious even now for the blackmail potential.

A long time ago, evil forces once tried to take control of Mana, the primordial force that creates and controls the world, and built an evil fortress powered by it to subjugate the world. With the power of Mana draining from the machines engines, the world nearly lost the power of Mana until a warrior appeared, brandishing the Mana sword, who slayed the evil doers and stopped the Mana Fortress. While the warrior eventually passed on, his sword continued to be well known through legend as it changed owners hands before disappearing in the flow of time.

In the modern age, both the Sword of Mana and the Mana Fortress are simply myths and while great feats of magic are still possible with the little Mana left in the world, it's power too has faded to obscurity. One day, outside of the village of Potos, the orphan Randi travels with two boys in the village looking for a treasure rumored to be near the waterfall. The boys are trying to keep their treasure hunt a secret because the place is also forbidden. Randi slips on the log bridge and falls down the waterfall. Unharmed, he sees that the growth of vegetation has blocked his path and can't proceed. Looking for something to cut it, Randi discovers the shiny object, a rusted sword thrust into a stone. Hearing an odd voice calling for him, Randi takes the sword and a bright light flashes before he sees the vision of an eerie ghost. Despite the shock, Randi cuts his way out of the lake-bed and soon discovers monsters roaming the woods around the town, despite none ever being in the area. When he returns home, he's chastised for entering the forbidden area with the other boys before the elder sees in horror that Randi has the rusted sword which legend says if it was ever to be pulled out from its resting place, the village and world would soon face calamity. Blamed for the sudden appearance of monsters, Randi is attacked by one of the children before an earthquake swallows them up and they are nearly eaten by a Mantis monster. With the guidance of the Knight Jema and using the sword, Randi fights off the monster but is exiled from the village for his transgression. Jema informs him that the sword he holds is the legendary Mana Sword and tasks him with restoring the sword. On his journey, Randi meets Primm, a young feisty tomboy in search of her love Dyluck who disappeared on a mission for their village; and Popoi, a rare Sprite creature with amnesia who is trapped in the dwarven jails for his mischievous behavior. The three embark on a journey across the world to restore the sword and Mana itself while fighting off the evil forces who wish to revive the Mana Fortress for their own deeds.

Released in 93, Secret of Mana is a sequel to Final Fantasy Adventure (Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden) and the first game in the series to bear the Mana title. Originally envisioned as Square's first major title to utilize CD-Rom technology on the new Super Famicom CD attachment being built by Sony, when the CD unit was scrapped, Square found themselves in the conundrum of having spent a large amount of time and money on the project with no system to release it. Not wishing for it to go to waste, the game was condensed onto the much smaller cartridge medium of the time. So if you ever wondered why Secret of Mana feels a bit choppy or say drops the plot and just starts telling you to go here and do this, that's why. This debacle is also pointed out by some people to be when Square started to form plans to leave Nintendo for another platform. Despite this hardship, the team did their best to build a rather groundbreaking Action-RPG which made use of the SNES multitap to have three player co-op, and I will say it was smurfing amazing back in the day to do so.

Gameplay is pretty simple on paper, but actually has a surprising amount of depth for it's time. You can walk around the screen and interact with monsters with the attack button. Every time you swing your weapon, a timer appears on the status bar showing how much longer until your next attack will be full power. You can swing with wild abandon if you wish, but your hits will be weak, whereas waiting for the timer to fill back up to 100% will guarantee a strong attack. I didn't really understand it when I first played, but it doesn't take long to instinctively realize what's going on. Primm and Popoi can use magic which involves pulling up the inventory screen and selecting the Mana Spirit you wish to summon and perform which spells. Primm focuses on healing and support magic, while Popoi gets mostly offensive magic. What's actually really groundbreaking about this game is the seamless world it creates, something borrowed from Zelda but still distinctively Square with the shops and greater emphasis on graphics. Your party actually travels to several unique locations ranging from deserts, snowy forests, a really cool forest that changes seasons as you pass through it, dark tombs and even the Moon. The Pure Lands are easily one of the most atmospheric locations in the game with it's gorgeous music and pain in the ass difficulty spike. In addition, the various weapons you gaincan also be used to pass obstacles like using the axe to break heavy wood barriers, or using the whip to traverse gaps between cliffs, the game has a cool Zelda-vibe going for it. Despite the game's cutesy designs and up beat soundtrack, Secret of Mana is a surprisingly somber experience. It's a bit funny to imagine how a game where your party kind of beats up Santa Claus (yes, that one) can also be a game with some truly gut-punching moments like Popoi regaining his memories, Primm and Dylucks story, as well as anytime Randi learns anything about his parents. The game's ending, like the whole franchise in general, is pretty bittersweet with the party having to fight a friend and and lose another. Helping the game's plot are some really great tracks by Hiroki Kikuta who went on to do Seiken Densetsu 3's OST as well.

What's really interesting about this game is also how much it radically changed a lot of RPGs after it. While Square had been experimenting with Mode 7 effects in earlier titles like FFIV and V as well as the Romancing SaGa series, it's interesting how many elements wound up in later games like FFVI and Chrono Trigger to give them some really cool psudeo-3D effects. In fact the whole layout of Flammie flying your party was copy and pasted for FFVI's airships. The game also experimented with better sprite work and finally moving the genre away from the traditional one graphics for traveling and other for fighting, as the sprites for exploration is the same in comabt, another feature seen many of Squares later 16-bit titles and something they stuck to in the PS1 generation when their knowledge of the tech would allow them to. In a lot of ways, this game is kind of the beginning of the new era for Square in terms of bringing about their visual and design philosophy they hold onto. While the game looks adn plays pretty simplistically b modern standards, this game was actually pretty groundbreaking and even before my friend lent the game to me, I was aware of it's existence because a lot of gaming mags I read at the time liked to do spotlights on it.

This is another one of those games where simply thinking about it really draws me back to parts of my childhood and I will honestly still get in the mood to play this game while watching videos of Sailor Moon or Gargoyles cause that's what I was into around the time I was playing this. I even wrote some awful stories that were close to blatant ripoffs of this game, but it really got my creative juices flowing and if I'm going to do the magic sword plot device, I kind of take my cues from this game.

I'm actually kind of excited to see this game get a remake next year. Despite the grating English voice they gave to Randi, I'm hoping to see if SE might either put back some of the cut content, or at least finally give us a decent translation outside of the mobile port. Of anything, it will be nice to play three player co-op again. If you haven't experienced this gem of a game yet, check it out. I'm still draggin my feet to play is supposed superior sequel, but I'm looking forward to it.

I played this on my iPhone and liked it a lot, but then near the end I just stopped playing and never came back to it. I have no idea why. I think I just got distracted and forgot about it. But maybe I'll get the 3D remake and fix that!

I have a fond memory of the first time I played through this game. I borrowed it from a friend of mine one summer, then happened to stay over at my cousin's house that night. We 24-hour marathoned it, beating it in that time. He wasn't really into RPGs but the action of combat really helped him stick it out. The memories of laughs and fun we had that night are far more prominent than anything that actually happened in the game. What I do remember is the intensity of the boss fights. It probably would have taken me much longer to get through them if I had to rely on AI instead of another person.

I'm thinking of playing my next game on this list for a little while to get a better feel for what I should say about it. You still have your two remaining clues to figure out the next two. I feel the last one is kind of obvious with the clues, but surprised no one has come close to the next entry, but I probably made the hints too vague. I'll give you two more clues:

1st Clue

One game is an interesting take on communication abilities.

One game is what I feel may be the greatest licensed game of all time.

2nd Clue

"With some, we're certain our hearts must have been acquainted, long before we ever met them." ~Shakieb Orgunwall

On further review, my next entry is too good to be this low on the list and so I switched it with another title that I felt I was being a bit too generous about. Update will be tomor... I guess later today if my clock is right.

DuckTales was one of my favorite Disney cartoons growing up, and Scrooge McDuck is easily one of my favorite characters in the Disney pantheon. So it's not a huge surprise that I was a big fan of the game made by Capcom based on the cartoon show. This is actually the first NES game I had ever beaten, and the last licensed title on this list.

Combining elements of Mega Man and Mario, DuckTales is a simple story about Scrooge traveling the world to obtain five of the great treasures of the world to build his fortune and prestige, or go bankrupt trying. Each world is based on a different location ranging from the infamous Amazon to the actual Moon. Scrooge uses his trusty cane to pogo stick off enemies heads and to send heavy objects flying to defeat opponents, destroy walls, and hit objects in the air. The gameplay elements are actually really clever and add some serious challenge to traversing the maps.

At the time of it's creation, I feel Capcom had sort of hit a serious good stride for their platformers, because while this is my favorite entry, the other adaptiosn they did for Disney as well as a few other obscure standalone titles are all seriously solid contenders that are easily on par with Nintendo and Sega's mascot character franchises.

Even more fun for me is how much Capcom took from the show to make the game. Most of the major Duck characters from the show make cameo appearances in the level, including divisive characters like Gizmo Duck and Bubba. The enemies and bosses are taken from the show as well. The aliens from the Moon level are based off an episode about a Star Trek knockoff getting picked up by real aliens. The weird subterranean people are featured heavily in the African Mines stage, and several other interesting nods to the show the game is an adaption of.

Honestly, I love this game cause it hits all of the right notes of how a licensed title should be. Plenty of shout outs to the source material and actual solid gameplay. Alos, it's mother smurfing DuckTales, and what's not to love?

Did you ever play the remake? What are thoughts on it compared to the original. I never played any of the old duck tales games but own the remake. I never could get into it, but I feel like I might like the original more.

Did you ever play the remake? What are thoughts on it compared to the original. I never played any of the old duck tales games but own the remake. I never could get into it, but I feel like I might like the original more.

No, I never felt the game could be improved by one, so I gave it a pass, but I may check it out someday. If it's similar to any Remake I've seen of old school platformers, then I'm sure they made the mistake of adding animation frames that weren't there which makes the game slightly slower than the original. I remember Rondo of Blood had that issue.